


Minerva McGonagall quits (or not)

by intern_at_german_chapterhouse



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Canon Compliant, Canon Era, Grief/Mourning, Happy Ending, Post-Canon, Post-War, Pre-Canon, Sad and Happy, War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-23
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:08:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 852
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28268889
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/intern_at_german_chapterhouse/pseuds/intern_at_german_chapterhouse
Summary: Every now and then, Minerva McGonagall thinks about leaving her position at Hogwarts.When her students die or annoy her too much.Or when new students come to school, students who are named after the Marauders for example.Kind of inspired by a tumblr post I once saw :)
Relationships: Hermione Granger & Minerva McGonagall & Harry Potter & Ron Weasley, Marauders & Minerva McGonagall
Comments: 3
Kudos: 21





	Minerva McGonagall quits (or not)

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer:  
> I do not own any of these characters. Unfortunately, they belong to JKR.
> 
> I do not support JKR or her horrible "views" on gender or sexuality. Trans men are men, trans women are women and anyone who disagrees with that should feel free to read something else.

There was more than one day when Minerva McGonagall thought about quitting her job.

The first might have been the day Lily and James Potter were found dead. They weren't the first of her students to die in this war, but their death hit her especially hard. Memories of Evans and Potter in her classes flooded her mind and with them memories of all the others they had lost in the months and years prior.  
Minerva McGonagall did not cry often. But she did on November 1st 1981. She cried for hours.  
For her students, for their children, their parents and siblings. For herself.  
But despite all of the guilt and pain she felt, she went back to her job at Hogwarts. She taught more children and hoped that these would survive. Even without a war, being a wizard or a witch was dangerous.  
She did her best to prepare the children for what they might face.  
She tried to do better. Teach them more.  
She tried not to get too attached again.  
Not like she had done with Potter and Evans, Lupin and Black, and even Pettigrew.  
She did her best.

She did rather good for the next thirteen years.  
Until the younger Potter came back from the Triwizard tournament.  
Voldemort, back. Another war looming in the distance.  
She couldn't do it again.  
A storm was coming and Potter would be in the middle of it.  
She had broken her vow, she had gotten too fond of some of her students again. The trio around Potter and their friends had weaselled their way into her heart.  
But she wouldn't let them die again.  
Not after the last time.  
She had to make sure, they'd make it. She couldn't face losing more of her students.  
And if she had to go against Dumbledore, keep him from enrolling children in his new war, she would.  
Not again.

The Weasley twins came close to break her more than once.  
She never truly considered quitting because of their antics, but she'd tell her colleagues that she'd leave if one more firecracker went off in her class or another hallway was turned into mud.  
She'd never tell anyone how much she liked the boys and their pranks.  
They made the rising tension and the newly lit fear of another war bearable. Almost.

Umbridge gaining control over Hogwarts, Dumbledore being forced to flee and Sibyll being fired made Minerva not want to stay at Hogwarts.  
She hated working with the pink witch.  
But if she quit, who would take care of these kids?  
Who would stand against Umbridge and a ministry too blind to see the threat right in front of their noses?  
So she stayed.

She stayed, even when Dumbledore was killed.  
She stayed, even when Snape became headmaster and death eaters flooded the castle.  
She stayed and did her part while some of her students were being hunted down and killed.  
Again.  
But Minerva McGonagall stayed and fought in her own way. Kept the Carrows from doing too much harm, helped Longbottom hide in the room of requirement, helped sneak people into or out of the castle.  
She did her best, as she had vowed to do.  
And even when her students were killed in front of her eyes, fighting a war their parents had fought seventeen years ago, even when what she had taught them failed them, even when her own spells failed, Minerva McGonagall was by their side.  
She walked through the Great Hall, full of bodies and grieving families and friends.  
And she stayed.  
She wasn't sure how. How she had survived losing so many. How she could keep going.  
But there weren't enough people left who could take care of the rest of the students, the students who'd come to Hogwarts in the future.  
She was needed and she did her part.  
She did her best.

After the second war, Minerva McGonagall had almost two decades without thoughts of quitting as headmistress.  
Until one sunny day in the middle of July 2015.  
Minerva McGonagall sat at her desk and went through the list of new students for the coming September.  
There were so many students whose last names she remembered. From their parents or even grandparents. Some had siblings attending Hogwarts at the moment.  
But two names stuck out from the rest of them.  
She kept their letters for the end. Filled out the rest and then looked back down at them.  
“James Sirius Potter” one letter read. “Fred II Weasley”, the other one said.  
Oh no.  
Oh, Merlin, no.  
Out of all the days she had been close to take her bags and leave Hogwarts for good, this was the day she came closest.  
She came so close, she actually started making plans for retirement.  
Until she thought of all the good memories.  
Memories of Potter (both Potters, really) on the quidditch field, Black shielding Evans from attacks by purebloods, the Weasley twins consoling a third year after a detention with Umbridge.  
She thought of all the joy they had brought to the school and her life.  
And she stayed.


End file.
